Tropical Storm — Inland Berkeley, South Carolina

2019-09-04 to 2019-09-05 · Inland Berkeley, South Carolina

Event narrative

Berkeley County Emergency Management reported numerous trees and power lines down across the county due to strong winds associated with Hurricane Dorian. Isolated to scattered power outages were reported and some roads were blocked due to downed trees. The AWOS site in Moncks Corner measured peak sustained winds of 35 mph and a peak wind gust of 51 mph. The National Weather Service observation at Pinopolis on Lake Moultrie measured peak sustained winds of 45 mph and a peak wind gust of 57 mph.

Wider weather episode

Dorian started as a Tropical Depression in the south-central Atlantic Ocean on August 24th. Dorian quickly became a Tropical Storm and moved with a west-northwestward motion as it moved through the Lesser Antilles. Dorian became a Hurricane near Puerto Rico on the evening of August 28th. As it moved to the northwest and then west-northwest, Dorian underwent rapid intensification and became one of the strongest Category 5 hurricanes on record with peak sustained winds of 185 mph and a minimum central pressure of 910 mb. During it's peak intensity, Dorian made landfall in the Bahamas at Elbow Cay and then very slowly moved to the west across Grand Bahama. Following this period of near stationary forward motion, Dorian weakened and turned to the north. From September 4th through the 6th, Dorian moved parallel to the Southeast coast of the United States, passing just off the Georgia and South Carolina coasts as a Hurricane.

Dorian produced notable impacts across southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina as it passed by offshore. Significant rainfall was limited to an area along and east of Interstate 95, with the heaviest amounts impacting eastern portions of Berkeley and Charleston counties. The peak storm total rainfall was 11.79 at a Climate Reference Network site located 7 miles northeast of McClellanville, SC in the Santee Coastal Reserve. The strongest winds were limited to immediate coastal areas across southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina. The peak measured wind gust in southeast Georgia was 60 mph by the Weatherflow site located on the north end of Tybee Island. The peak measured wind gust in southeast South Carolina was 69 mph by the ASOS site at the Charleston International Airport. Winds topped out in the Tropical Storm force range and produced numerous trees down across much of the area. The peak storm surge from Dorian was 3-4 ft, but this occurred at low tide which greatly reduced the threat of damaging and life threatening storm surge inundation.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 857263. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.